Dame Annie Florence Gillies Cardell-Oliver (1876-1965)

Florence Cardell-Oliver became Australia’s first female full Cabinet member in 1949. She was WA’s minister for health, supply and shipping and continued to work in Parliament until 1956. She introduced a free milk program for schoolchildren and legislated for compulsory chest exams as part of the fight against tuberculosis. In 1935, Dame Cardell-Oliver attended a congress in Istanbul of the International Suffrage of Women Alliance at the personal request of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey. She was also delegate to the British Commonwealth League.